The goal for this project is to develop baseline data on the impact that selected family factors and stress related to the dual role of worker and mother have in supporting the economic stability and mental health of family members in single-parent Black families. The American Black family is increasingly facing stresses, that come from change, that threaten the very emotional health of individuals and family units. Family factors are defined as the support provided by family interaction network, the kin-help systems, the reciprocal obligations, and socialization practices found in nuclear and extended family structures. Geographic, economic mobility and changes in the number of children will be examined over three generations. The sample will be drawn from families in the Balitmore metropolitan area who live in urban and suburban sites. It will be drawn according to marital status (never married; previously married), and economic status (working; middle class) to assess the differential impact that this group membership has on mobility patterns, kin interaction patterns, family structure and mental health of family members. Mobility, whether geographic, economic, or social, causes stress in the family, that may remove the single-parent mother from the support of the extended family system. Programs will need to be developed to provide preventive mental health support. The data base provided by the study is needed to give direction for the design of social service programs that are culturally compatible and supportive of family functioning of single-parent Black units during the socialization process.